City report.

Designation Targets Area Improvements

April 16, 2000|By Jeanette Almada.

BURNSIDE — Nearly 90 acres from 91st to 94th Street and from the Metro Chicago rail tracks to Kenwood Avenue are being designated a redevelopment area, targeting streetscape and infrastructure improvements for the Burnside community as well as construction of single-family housing.

Carolyn Nash of the Department of Planning asked the Community Development Commission to approve designation of the Burnside Redevelopment Project Area last week, describing vacant lots as accounting for 22 percent of the land in the mostly residential area. Nash said that deteriorated or dilapidated buildings account for 31 percent of Burnside's housing stock, a situation exacerbated by the area's declining industrial base.

Along with the redevelopment designation, the Planning Department presented an acquisition list of 101 vacant parcels.

"When industry closed down and moved out in the '70s and '80s, the community very much suffered," said the area's alderman, Lorraine Dixon (8th).

"We have been very aggressive in the community, had numerous drug marches and job readiness training programs. As of late, about six upscale houses have gone up in the community at 89th and Greenwood and that developer will continue to build there," Dixon said.

"St. Albe's Senior Housing is going up as well. We would like to continue that redevelopment by having these vacant lots on the acquisition list, so we can pitch them to developers who could come in and build single-family homes."

Dixon said that at least two private developers have expressed interest in building on the vacant lots. One of them is an upscale builder who charges as much as $250,000 for his houses.

"We are striving for a mix of incomes," said Dixon, who expects final City Council approval of the designation by July. She said she will then begin negotiating sale of city owned, 25- to 30-foot lots with developers by fall.